Uriminzokkiri, the propaganda website managed by North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, moved to propagate an atmosphere conducive to inter-Korean dialogue and reconciliation through an article published yesterday entitled, “The Common Benefits that Should Be Put First”.
The website introduced the piece by raising the words of the 2011 Common Editorial, asserting, “The Common Editorial called for an active effort to place the Korean peoples’ benefits ahead of all others and to induce talks between North and South as well as a climate of reconciliation.”
“The calls are legitimate, as they reflect today’s real demand for the people to put our common demands and benefits ahead of those of class, rank and faction, while also striving as one for their realization,” it continued.
“If unification cannot be done in our time, it is possible that our people might remain divided forever,” it went on to warn. “This is why ending the tragedy of this divided land and people and realizing unity and independent unification is becoming a critical demand, one that can neither be postponed nor delayed any longer.”
“Let’s open a new era of independent reunification through the united power of North, South and all our people overseas”, the piece added, trumpeting one of the key phrases in the Common Editorial. The future, it claimed, lies in “putting the peoples’ joint benefits ahead of all other concerns, guaranteeing free traffic and trade among different sectors and classes, and encouraging cooperation.”
Meanwhile, in a separate editorial entitled “The Last Days of the Unchanging Desire to Confront”, Hyun In Taek, South Korea’s Minister of Unification, was heavily criticized, as he often is. In response to the assertions made in Hyun’s New Year’s speech on January 3rd for an “unwavering continuation of a principle-based approach towards North Korea”, “North Korea’s termination of its nuclear policy”, and a “future of dialogue and cooperation”, Uriminzokkiri sai, “If those are indeed his true intentions, the anachronistic policy of confrontation must be discarded.”
Labeling Hyun an inter-Korean confrontation fanatic who does not even dream about the peoples’ reconciliation or unity, it further asserted that the whole nation was keeping a keen eye on the attitude of the South Korean ruling conservative party.
Media propaganda aimed at starting talks is a time-honored North Korean tactic; trying to place the responsibility for tensions on the peninsula onto the shoulders of the South Korean government while simultaneously fostering a climate for domestic strife south of the DMZ. It can also be seen, as with the Common Editorial, as part of the North’s united front strategy in which it strives to bring together pro-North Korea leftist movements within South Korea, specifically in advance of South Korean elections, which are due this time next year.
